Abstract
Why are some policies protested more than others? New data on protest against eight categories of taxation in twenty rich democracies from 1980 to 2010 reveal that economically and socially concentrated taxes are protested most, whereas taxes that confer entitlement to benefits are protested least. Other features of policy design often thought to affect the salience or visibility of costs are unimportant for explaining the frequency of protest. These findings overturn a folk theory that political sociology has inherited from classical political economy; clarify the conditions under which policy threats provoke protest; and shed light on how welfare states persist.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 647-669 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Journal | British Journal of Sociology |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© London School of Economics and Political Science 2017
Funding
1. The research reported in this paper was supported by the Israel–US Binational Science Foundation (grant number 2012385). The analysis has benefited from the criticism of colleagues too numerous to name individually,
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Israel–US Binational Science Foundation | 2012385 |
Keywords
- fiscal sociology
- protest events
- taxation
- welfare state